Saturday, August 11, 2007

Miscellany

Today was a day for miscellaneous things. First, I got the gauge cluster all put together (but not yet wired). The ammeter and voltmeter from EA are at the leftmost and left-top; I have my own 10-18 voltmeter that I had lying around that I put at left-bottom. That's the original tach; the speedo is a new all-electronic VDO that matches nicely. I also actually screwed the dashboard in place (previously it was using gravity to keep it there).

I did some more work in the rear trunk. First, I verified that I have the speed controller integrated in the cabling, unlike the rather bulky box Tim has (the wide part of the cable heatshrunk in the middle contains the speed controller). Second, I drilled the holes for the DC battery wiring to enter. And finally, I fabricated a speedo converter cable from the blade-style that the transmission supplies to the square end that the digital speedo sender accepts. That's the end of the cable peeking in at lower right.

Finally, I got the windshield wiper motor and main blower ductwork installed. This was much tricker than expected - it probably took 2 hours to get everything lined up and tightened down. What a pain...For future reference, here is the correct wiring on my 1975 windshield wiper motor. Black/blue at the top, green/black to the left, red to the right, purple to the bottom, and the brown ground at the far top right.

About Me

I was a PSD Board of Education member from 1999 to 2007, and spent nearly 3 years as its president, from 2003-2005. I currently represent Fort Collins' District 5 as its Councilmember. In my private life, I'm a lead engineer with nvidia, a computer chip design company. I have converted two cars from gasoline to electric. Past hobby computer projects include Hoverball and Adventure Definition Language.